Lewis Hamilton has taken a surprise pole position for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.

The world champion had been expected to struggle in his Mercedes-GP compared to Ferrari and Red Bull Racing at the Marina Bay Circuit, but he topped the timesheets in qualifying with a stunning lap of 1 minute, 36.015 seconds for a new lap record.

The lap had come out of nowhere as the Briton had largely been off the pace of Ferrari in final practice, and it is the first time since 2014, the last time he was on pole, that he has qualified on the front row for the race.

Title rival Sebastian Vettel, who had been hoping to make in-roads into the 30 points by which he trails Hamilton, was only third quickest, behind the Red Bull of Max Verstappen.

Valtteri Bottas was fourth in the second Mercedes, ahead of Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen and the Red Bull of Daniel Ricciardo.